The GOP House’s Farm Bill Would Gut a Key Conservation Program

It incentivizes farmers to prevent erosion, protect natural resources, and help bees.

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Last week, the US House Agriculture Committee released a draft of the farm bill, the once-every-five-years legislation that shapes and funds the country’s agriculture funding and policy. On Wednesday, the ag committee approved it, setting it up for a vote on the House floor.

It would gut what is arguably the most important program to encourage farmers to protect soil and water resources.

Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif) quickly denounced the proposal, declaring, “Democrats cannot support this radical, harmful Republican bill.” It wouldn’t just add stringentwork requirements to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s main food-aid initiative. It would also gut what is arguably the most important program to encourage farmers to protect soil and water resources: the Conservation Stewardship Program.

The group also notes that CSP generally takes a more comprehensive approach than EQIP to funding on-farm sustainability: “While EQIP provides one-time assistance to correct a problem or add farm infrastructure, CSP provides ongoing performance-based stewardship payments to support advanced conservation systems.”

But here’s the thing: The bill is virtually dead on arrival. Ferd Hoefner, senior strategic adviser for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and a longtime farm bill observer, says the ag commitee’s version will likely never pass the House. Moderate Republicans oppose the SNAP changes and hard-right Republicans oppose essentially all anti-hunger and farm spending.

Even if Republicans do pass the bill through the House, he adds, their SNAP agenda will run into a brick wall in the Senate, where the GOP leadership has vowed to maintain the status quo. And according to Hoefner, the Senate agriculture leadership, Republican and Democratic alike, have shown no appetite for slashing conservation funds.

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